If thou of fortune be bereft,
And in thy store there be but left,
Two loaves, sell one, and with the dole,
Buy Hyacinths to feed thy soul
~Muslih-uddin Sadi
It’s always a thrill to see the tips of daffodils and tulips and other spring bulb flowers poking through the still-cold earth in the spring. But enjoying spring-flowering bulbs requires some advance planning. You have to get the bulbs in the ground in the fall before the big freeze-up!
Late in the summer, Veseys Bulb catalogue arrived in my mailbox. What a wonderful display! So many beautiful varieties to choose from! Tulips in stunning shades. Sunny yellow daffodils. Hyacinths and crocus and snowdrops and more, much more! I find enchantment on every page. But day after day goes by, and I fail to get my order in. Before I know it, I’ve missed another planting season. *sigh*
I had been planning on planting some bulbs around my daylily plants. Before the opportunity had completely passed me by, I finally picked up a few bags of bulbs at a local department store. Probably the quality of the bulbs is inferior to those purchased from specialty stores, but hopefully, they’ll still brighten the garden next spring.
The selection of bulbs was limited, but I was able to purchase a few different varieties of narcissus. I have long had a fondness for narcissus. While tulips offer vibrant colours, they are a bit more problem-prone. Squirrels love tulips. And tulips don’t multiply the way narcissus bulbs do. Narcissus are a good investment in a future filled with their dainty, fragrant blooms.
Narcissus jonquilla ‘Bell Song’ was introduced in 1971 by by the late Grant E. Mitsch. It features very pale yellow, almost ivory, petals and a trumpet fringed with pink. Jonquils are generally more sweetly-scented than daffodils.
Another pack offers a combination of Spring Green tulips and Narcissus ‘Hawera’. Hawera is a dwarf narcissus, developed in New Zealand and introduced in 1938. Spring Green is a creamy-white tulip with pale green feathering at the edges. This should make a very pretty combination.
Narcissus tazetta paperwhite is often grown as an indoor forcing bulb. However, the package assures me that these bulbs will do fine in the outdoor garden, so I hope they’re right.
Finally, I got a few tulip bulbs. They are labeled simply “Rembrandt Assortment”, which should mean the flowers are streaked with colour. Hopefully they will avoid detection by squirrels and it will be interesting to see what colour they are next spring. On the last few sunny days, I’ve got my bulbs nestled into place and can sit back now and anticipate spring.
Willow House Chronicles 
Those all look like they should make a lovely display. I enjoy browsing the stuff in stores, but likewise tend to forget to buy and plant them early. I visited the nursery just west of Perth yesterday. I needed some orchid potting soil (my Phalenopsis, which is just starting to put out a scape again, has eroded badly and its roots are half exposed) and figured I’d go there and check the place out, even though fall’s not the best time of year. It seemed a nice enough place, I’ll have to go back in spring. Their bulbs were half price, and I toyed with getting some but finally decided I didn’t *really* need bulbs. I did ask if they had snowdrops – if she’d had those I would’ve got some, but she said they’d been sold out of them for a while, that they’re one of the first to sell out after they get them in in September. Kinda funny. Then when I stopped at the grocery store, they had some bulbs that were marked 50% off, too, and I decided to splurge on a $4 package, now $2, of 20 Chionodoxa ‘Gigantea’ bulbs, the packaging suggesting a lovely mauve variety. It was raining today, still need to get them in.
Sounds like you got a bargain there! I would have liked snowdrops too, but as you note, you had to shop early to find snowdrops. I didn’t see any. But the nice thing about gardening is, there’s always next year! Next year will be perfect!
And the related hopeful statement, “I guess I’ll get it next year – next year I’ll have more money.”
I’ve got so much waiting for “next year”!